Contact Us

Investigation of a Jail - What is Real Evidence?

My Paranormal Group went and investigated an old jail. Here is the link to the video of the evidence we found the night of (only 10 or so minutes).
What do you think constitutes as good evidence? Does an Ovilus count? A spirit box?

To be honest, an Ovilus tends to throw out words and people can make up their own stories of what happens.
Cameras catch dust that people claim are orbs.
Spirit boxes have glimpses of radio channels that people think are ghosts.
EMF detectors are set off by power lines, breaker boxes, etc.

It is unfortunate that it that almost all equipment used in an investigation is either untested or so easy to debunk the results they supposedly pickup, like the ovilus, spirit box, emf detector and so on. I have seen it happen time after time. My biggest problem is orbs and mist. If anything can be easily debunked or even faked, orbs and mist are the easiest of the all. To me a rock solid proof I don't think can ever be captured by "amateurs" (and by that I mean people that do this as a hobby) using todays equipment. It's another situation that it will take something extrodinary for people to sit up and take notice. By the way I think there should be a central place that is a central area. Like a school that is an accredited school, one that people can go and do a check to see if that group or person is accredited. I also believe that groups should have some kind of insurance or be bonded before they are allowed to do investigations in private homes. I know people get upset and scared when they have situations like a haunting but I wouldn't let anyone in my home cause the risk of injury and lawsuits are too great now.

It is unfortunate that it that almost all equipment used in an investigation is either untested or so easy to debunk the results they supposedly pickup, like the ovilus, spirit box, emf detector and so on. I have seen it happen time after time. My biggest problem is orbs and mist. If anything can be easily debunked or even faked, orbs and mist are the easiest of the all. To me a rock solid proof I don't think can ever be captured by "amateurs" (and by that I mean people that do this as a hobby) using todays equipment. It's another situation that it will take something extrodinary for people to sit up and take notice. By the way I think there should be a central place that is a central area. Like a school that is an accredited school, one that people can go and do a check to see if that group or person is accredited. I also believe that groups should have some kind of insurance or be bonded before they are allowed to do investigations in private homes. I know people get upset and scared when they have situations like a haunting but I wouldn't let anyone in my home cause the risk of injury and lawsuits are too great now.

It's funny that you talk about standards. My group was actually approached by a psychic group in regards to becoming certified through them as a legitimate paranormal group. I think that at this point, the industry standard is how much you have been on TV (taps for example, or ghost hunters). After that, local channels. Sadly, I personally am starting to agree with you that the equipment out there works great when it's all in conjunction with one another, but an EMF reader means little going off. And honestly, unless you have a camera on the meter, how legitimate are the results? How many times do you see readings in reports of investigations, or just the words, "emf spikes".

My group was actually forced to get insurance early on. And like you said, I think insurance makes the group credible. We have been to several museums that never required insurance (of you check out the website the jail was actually a museum as well as the May-Stringer house). The fact that these places have priceless artifacts that could be broken and lost forever is kind of startling.

Ironically, it was a graveyard that required us to have a million dollar policy. About $300 a year in FLORIDA.

I also think that equipment companies are setting the standards too by what they are throwing out there. For example: whoever created the ovilus just throws a machine out there and labels it ghost hunter? So it must be real...

Well Spirit Boxes are not suppose to have any sounds beside white noise being generated. If you made your own, when you press the seek button you should hear no words but really short clips. So if when you turn it on you are hearing long snippets of speech from the radio, you will contaminate your evidence. The Spirit Box apps are bull shit and really are only meant for kids scaring their friends. Now Ovillus is one that I have no idea about. EMFs for me only work in outdoor locations. You should not hold it either, you should let it sit in a hot spot. There should be no spikes considering your outside away from electric lines but always do a sweep to account for underground lines and power lines above. EVPs are my favorite and if you can get clear ones they can really help understand whats haunting. Be careful though because the mind can matrix words into other words. I would only recommend using evps as evidence if they are clear and actually make sense. Especially if you are getting answers to your questions.